Laughter in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times: Epistemology of a Fundamental Human Behavior, its Meaning, and Consequences

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Laughter in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times

Epistemology of a Fundamental Human Behavior, its Meaning, and Consequences

Edited by: Albrecht Classen

Language: English

Published/Copyright: 2010

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This book is in the series

Volume 5 | Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture

About this book

Despite popular opinions of the ‘dark Middle Ages’ and a ‘gloomy early modern age,’ many people laughed, smiled, giggled, chuckled, entertained and ridiculed each other. This volume demonstrates how important laughter had been at times and how diverse the situations proved to be in which people laughed, and this from late antiquity to the eighteenth century. The contributions examine a wide gamut of significant cases of laughter in literary texts, historical documents, and art works where laughter determined the relationship among people. In fact, laughter emerges as a kaleidoscopic phenomenon reflecting divine joy, bitter hatred and contempt, satirical perspectives and parodic intentions. In some examples protagonists laughed out of sheer happiness and delight, in others because they felt anxiety and insecurity. It is much more difficult to detect premodern sculptures of laughing figures, but they also existed. Laughter reflected a variety of concerns, interests, and intentions, and the collective approach in this volume to laughter in the past opens many new windows to the history of mentality, social and religious conditions, gender relationships, and power structures.

Author / Editor information

Albrecht Classen, University of Arizona, USA.

Reviews

"The book aims at an interdisciplinary and multi-layered approach to the highly complex phenomenon of laughter in the Middle Ages and early modern times."
Stefan Seeber in: Medium Aevum Vol. LXXX, 2011

Topics

Frontmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	I
Table of Contents Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	V
Laughter as an Expression of Human Natur in theMiddle Ages and the Early Modern Period: Literary, Historical, Theological, Philosophical, and Psychological Reflections. Also an Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	1
Chapter 1. Laughter in Procopius’s Wars Judith Hagen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	141
Chapter 2. “Does God Really Laugh?” – Appropriate and Inappropriate Descriptions of God in Islamic Traditionalist Theology Livnat Holtzman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	165
Chapter 3. Laughter in Beowulf: Ambiguity, Ambivalence, and Group Identity Formation Daniel F. Pigg Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	201
Chapter 4. The Parodia sacra Problem and Medieval Comic Studies Mark Burde Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	215
Chapter 5. Women’s Laughter and Gender Politics in Medieval Conduct Discourse Olga V. Trokhimenko Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	243
Chapter 6. Pushing Decorum: Uneasy Laughter in Heinrich von dem Türlîn’s Diu Crône Madelon Köhler-Busch Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	265
Chapter 7. Laughter and the Comedic in a Religious Text: The Example of the Cantigas de Santa Maria Connie L. Scarborough Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	281
Chapter 8. The Son Rebelled and So the Father Made Man Alone: Ridicule and Boundary Maintenance in the Nizzahon Vetus John Sewell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	295
Chapter 9. Laughing at the Beast: The Judensau: Anti Jewish Propaganda and Humor from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period Birgit Wiedl Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	325
Chapter 10. Yes . . . but was it funny? Cecco Angiolieri, Rustico Filippi, and Giovanni Boccaccio Fabian Alfie Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	365
Chapter 11. Curses and Laughter in Medieval Italian Comic Poetry: The Ethics of Humor in Rustico Filippi’s Invectives Nicolino Applauso Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	383
Chapter 12. Tromdhámh Guaire: a Context for Laughter and Audience in Early Modern Ireland Feargal Béarra Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	413
Chapter 13. Humorous Transgression in the Non Conformist fabliaux Genre: A Bakhtinian Analysis of Three Comic Tales Jean E. Jost Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	429
Chapter 14. Chaucerian Comedy: Troilus and Criseyde Gretchen Mieszkowski Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	457
Chapter 15. Laughing in and Laughing at the Old French Fabliaux Sarah Gordon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	481
Chapter 16. Laughter and Medieval Stalls Christine Bousquet-Labouérie Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	499
Chapter 17. Vox populi e voce professionis: Processus juris joco serius. Esoteric Humor and the Incommensurability of Laughter Scott L. Taylor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	515
Chapter 18. “So I thought as I Stood, To Mirth Us Among”: The Function of Laughter in The Second Shepherds’ Play Jean N. Goodrich Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	531
Chapter 19. Laughing in Late Medieval Verse (mæren) and Prose (Schwänke) Narratives: Epistemological Strategies and Hermeneutic Explorations Albrecht Classen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	547
Chapter 20. The Workings of Desire: Panurge and the Dogs Rosa Alvarez Perez Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	587
Chapter 21. Laughing Out Loud in the Heptaméron: A Reassessment of Marguerite de Navarre’s Ambivalent Humor Elizabeth Chesney Zegura Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	603
Chapter 22. You had to be there: The Elusive Humor of the Sottie Lia B. Ross Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	621
Chapter 23. Sacred Parody in Robert Greene’s Groatsworth of Wit (1592) Kyle DiRoberto Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	651
Chapter 24. The Comedy of the Shrew: Theorizing Humor in Early Modern Netherlandish Art Martha Moffitt Peacock Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	667
Chapter 25. The Comic Personas of Milton’s Prolusion VI: Negotiating Masculine Identity Through Self Directed Humor Jessica Tvordi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	715
Chapter 26. Ridentum dicere verum (Using Laughter to Speak the Truth): Laughter and the Language of the Early Modern Clown “Pickelhering” in German Literature of the Late Seventeenth Century (1675–1700) Robert J. Alexander Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	735
Chapter 27. Andreae’s ludibrium: Menippean Satire in the Chymische Hochzeit Thomas Willard Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	767
Chapter 28. The Comic Power of Illusion Allusion: Laughter, La Devineresse, and the Scandal of a Glorious Century Diane Rudall Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	791
Chapter 29. Laughing at Credulity and Superstition in the Long Eighteenth Century Allison P. Coudert Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	803
Backmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed	831

Publishing information

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

eBook published on:

September 22, 2010

eBook ISBN:

9783110245486

Hardcover published on:

August 17, 2010

Hardcover ISBN:

9783110245479

Pages and Images/Illustrations in book

Front matter:

9

Main content:

853

Illustrations:

38

Other:

Num. figs.

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110245486

eBook ISBN: 9783110245486

Hardcover ISBN: 9783110245479

Keywords for this book

Laughter / in Literature

Audience(s) for this book

Academics, Departments, Libraries

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Laughter in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times

Overview

About this book

Author / Editor information

Reviews

Topics

Table of contents

Bibliographic data